Roman Goes Wild for the Deuces
Another preliminary event that has completed here at the EPT Vienna was Event #6 €120 NLH Deuce Wild Deepstack. The tournament attracted 192 players and created a prize pool of €18,624.
The Eureka Poker Tour Main Event, which was happening the same day, meant the “Deuces Wild” tournament began with just eight tables. There was a long list of alternates, and over the course of the next two hours the field swelled to approximately 200 players. The tournament organizers seemed a bit overwhelmed, but they were no doubt pleased with the turnout.
Now there are two important rules you must understand in the “Deuces Wild” event. The first is that five of a kind is a legitimate hand, and according to their rankings it beats a straight flush, but not a Royal Flush. The second rule was that a player couldn’t play with pocket deuces. If a player happened to wake up with “ducks” (which happened just once at our table in the first ten levels), they simply tabled the hand and won the blinds and antes. The reason for this, according to one floor, is that having pocket deuces ensures you the nuts no matter what, thus all skill is removed from the game.
Everyone involved seemed to have a good time, though most would admit the strategy was much different than a normal NLHE tournament. Here’s a look at the eight players who figured it out best:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wieczorek Roman | Germany | €3,555* |
| 2 | Christian Jambor | Germany | € 3,355* |
| 3 | Jia Tse | Germany | €1,915 |
| 4 | Hannu Peltola | Finland | €1,565 |
| 5 | Thomas Thomasberger | Austria | €1,245 |
| 6 | Alexander Kuzmin | Russian Federation | €955 |
| 7 | Claire Legrand | France | €695 |
| 8 | Roland Maurus | Germany | €504 |
*Denotes heads-up deal.